


Could You Call Me Elena?

by KingHippiedude (missreader)



Series: The Avengers Are Actually a Parents-of-Trans-Kids Support Group [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Original Transgender Character, Parent-Child Relationship, Single Parent Natalia, Trans, Trans Character, Transgender, single parent, transgender character, transvengers, transvengers assemble
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 18:59:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5597104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missreader/pseuds/KingHippiedude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natalia isn't quite sure what to do when her only child comes out as trans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is quite rough, but I'm trying to get all my Transvengers stuff posted before the year ends in a few hours. So enjoy what's here and know that it will be edited and added to eventually.

Natalia had gotten home early from work for once, and she was ready to collapse into her bed for a few minutes before she had to fix dinner. Maybe I could just order pizza tonight? she thought, as she opened the door to her apartment. And what she saw next entirely derailed whatever thoughts she had about dinner. Because her son was sitting on their couch wearing a dress and makeup, face turning bright red then deathly pale as he realized he had been seen. They both seemed to be frozen in place until Natalia calmly stepped into the room, shutting the door behind herself and asked, “Alex? What’s going on?”

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no sound came out. A few tears leaked out of his eyes and down his cheeks, leaving faint trails of mascara in their wake.

“Hey,” Natalia said, approaching him slowly. “It’s okay. I just want to know why.”

Rather than answer, since he still seemed to be unable to speak, he pulled out his phone and began to text. Seconds later, her phone chirped, alerting her to an incoming message. It read:

I feel like a girl inside, not a boy. Sorry you had to find out this way.

She looked up from her phone and said, “I don’t understand. I wish I did.”

Alex nodded, then ran off to his--her? Natalia wasn’t sure--bedroom, not reappearing until dinner time, this time wearing neutral clothing and having washed off the makeup, though Natalia could still see traces of the mascara. They didn’t speak again that night, and when Natalia woke up in the morning, she was alone in the apartment, but she had a text in her inbox that said:

Could you call me Elena, please? I love you.

Natalia didn’t know how to respond. Alex (Elena?) had already left for school, slipping out early before Natalia got up for work.


	2. Chapter 2

Natalia supposed they should count themselves lucky that Elena was not broad-chested but was simply tall and slender. But there was still no denying that her body lacked the feminine curves Natalia knew she craved. They both knew that the hormones would help shift some of her fat distribution, but Elena wouldn’t be able to start them for months yet because of all the red tape and exorbitant cost. Natalia caught Elena staring at her large hands and feet more and more often as time passed. They weren’t even particularly large, but they were far from dainty, and they were just one more example of how Elena’s body was wrong.

And so, after much deliberation, Natalia registered her for piano lessons. It would be a place where her larger-than-average-for-a-woman hands would come in - if you’ll excuse the pun - handy. Elena loved music and played the saxophone in her high school band. She used to sing too, but she had quit not long after her voice started changing two years ago. So the piano lessons were one of Elena’s birthday gifts, and Natalia felt a knot untwist in her stomach when Elena was actually excited.

Piano lessons couldn’t really solve anything, but they gave Elena something else to focus her time and energy on and made her happy in a way that nothing had managed to do for a long time.


	3. Chapter 3

Natalia Romanova and Bucky Barnes were arriving to the Avengers meeting at the same time. Neither one was particularly social, but when the elevator jarred and stopped before it reached their destination, they introduced themselves to each other.

“So, looks like we’re stuck for a while,” Bucky said, trying to keep his cool after someone had called down the elevator shaft telling them that they had lost power. “My name is Bucky.”

“Natalia,” Nat replied.

“And, are you here for the meeting?”

“Yep.”

“Me too. My nei- _nephew_ just came out a couple weeks ago, and Steve asked me to tag along. They should already be here.”

“My daughter can’t make it this week, but she’s the reason I’m here.”

“Oh. How old is she?” Bucky asked, trying to keep the conversation going as he felt himself starting to panic.

“16.”

“Okay. Ryan is 15. Do you--” Bucky trailed off abruptly as the elevator groaned, full-fledged panic finally setting in. He began hyperventilating and backed himself into a corner, trying to calm down. He knew that his claustrophobia was acting up irrationally right now. There was nothing to fear from the elevator. But rational didn’t have anything to do with it. A moment after he collapsed to the floor, he sensed the woman-- _Natalia_ , his brain supplied--kneeling down in front of him.

“Focus on me,” he heard her say, voice cutting through the panic. “Try and match your breaths to mine.”

Bucky did his best to concentrate on Natalia’s breathing, struggling to slow his breaths to match hers. At first they were shaky, and he was still half lost in his panic. But slowly, he began to even out his breathing.

“Are you alright?” Natalia asked him after he had calmed down for a minute.

“I think so,” he replied, still shaking a little and feeling like the walls of the elevator might start closing in on his mind again any minute.

Natalia turned around and sat next to him, back against one of the walls. “I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve had a panic attack…?”

Bucky just shook his head. And at that moment the elevator shuddered back into life, sending Bucky into a minor panic as the lights came back on and they began to move once more. But this time, he was able to steady his own breaths without Natalia’s intervention.

When they arrived on the floor of the meeting, Steve was waiting just outside the elevator doors. He took one look at Bucky and suggested that they go home. Sam could stay with Ryan, and Bucky could come to a meeting some other time. Though Bucky felt irrationally guilty for his panic attack, subsequently missing the meeting, and making Steve miss it too, he was also grateful and needed little convincing to turn around and leave, this time by the stairs.

“Nice to meet you, Natalia,” Bucky said before he and Steve left.

“Hopefully we’ll meet again soon, under better circumstances,” she replied.

Bucky smiled a bit in response as he turned to go.


End file.
